Stewie Griffin’s version made us seek out the original spoof on Elton John‘s classic by William Shatner. Words cannot express how I feel about this. Really… they can’t.

It seems like just yesterday we started this little podcast with a group of local hockey bloggers and here we are on #19.

We’re without Alanah on this episode, but the Internet gods were not on our side. Blame them. On the other hand, the rest of the crew were on hand after a long dry spell without Dave. Three games to talk about this time around; a loss to the Kings, an amazing win over the Sharks, and the Blue Jackets stole a shootout from us last night.

Record as of this episode: 28-19-4
Northwest Division: 2nd
Western Conference: 7th

Also, we address some trade rumors, talk about how Crow is doing in L.A., do a bit of an injury analysis on Kesler and Mitchell, get to some listener feedback/requests, and look at the road ahead towards the playoffs. And believe it or not, Fin is blogging.

It’s hard to imagine that we could be thinking about the playoffs with such hope compared to where we were at the beginning of the season, but we are. Episode 19, Run Time 51:00

A fellow blogger at Metroblogging – Chicago pointed this out. It’s an interesting map compiled by a Norwegian blogger, placing countries (based on their GDP) in corresponding US States [TheBigPicture]

Canada: 1.035 trillion USD
Texas: 989,443 billion USD

If you want to get really picky… you could break it down by Canadian province. British Columbia being at 168 million behind Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. You could say, BC is the new Connecticut, or Alberta is the new Missouri… or just let Wiki do the rest of the comparisons for you.

According to Hockey, A People’s History (which John and I watched religiously but are too cheap to purchase the DVD box set) Tim Horton was trying to subsidized his meager hockey earnings by becoming an entrepreneur. He worked for Conn Smythe’s [wiki] cement company before starting up his own burger joints and eventually the donut shops which became a staple of Canadian culture [wiki] .

We were talking with Bradley (yes, name drop, don’t you feel special now?) on the weekend about how prevalent Tim Horton’s are back East. He said they even have different products including the rumoured “Gretzky”. We all know a Double Double is two sugars, two creams[CBC], but the fabled “Gretzky” is nine of each [wiki].

But the Tim Ho specialty I’m missing right now is the bread bowl. I got some gift certificates for my birthday so I’ve been pumped with coffee for about 3 days now. At lunch I ran down to get some chili, which is accompanied by garlic bread, which will have to suffice for now. I’ve told John about the commercials for a while, since sometimes I’ll just blurt it out in every day conversation but I really do want to say, with merit, “…and then I ate the bowl!” (followed by cheesy laughter).

It’s something everyone West of Thunder Bay has come to accept, Toronto is the centre of the Canadian universe.

We scoff at the CBC and their disregard for Western programming and hockey coverage, federal politicians have long-before snubbed those on this side of the Rockies and let’s face it, they get all the good shopping, and recognition from other nations as being representative of Canada as a whole.

Nowadays it seems as though this image presented by arrogant residents of the ‘big stinky‘ city is becoming a trait most associated with Vancouverites [mbv].

But we’re supposed to hate and make fun of Torontonians, aren’t we?

My company’s head office is in Toronto and it’s pretty much a microcosm of Canadian society. All the big rules are made out there and we don’t know about them until they’re put into affect, after which all of us realize they’re completely useless and probably only serve those in the head office. A co-worker of mine came out here for a visit. He kept referring to the body of water in Coal Harbor as “the lake” and was surprised at the “city” we appear to have. Yes, real buildings, not tree forts.

The funny thing is, Torontonians don’t seem to care. Although we only see the Leafs once a year in NHL action, Canucks fans have the utmost hatred for the boys in blue and white. It’s comparable to Red Sox vs Yankees and Michigan vs Ohio State. But I’m starting to think it’s pretty much a one-way street.

In recent years, the despise for Toronto seems to have faded out here. Many are moving to Vancouver to set up shop, study and work and the other night at GM Place there was a healthy representation of Leafs fans. They’re becoming one of us and we’re becoming… something else.

Photo credit: mg on Flickr

It seems like Vancouver, much younger than more established and history-rich cities in Eastern Canada, has finally found its footing. Hollywood North, 2010 Olympics, diversity, fashion, cuisine, it all looks good on paper but we could just be becoming just as superficial as our old rivals.

With popularity comes more attention, positive and negative. We always knew our city was great but now that everyone else is starting to recognize this as well, we’re looking in the mirror a little more often. During a conversation with a friend, he mentioned how our ‘multicultural diversity’ is turning into a front for tourist brochures when in fact, we’re seriously lacking in that area (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg).

Toronto may still be the centre of the (Canadian) universe but the fact is, we’re catching up, in good ways and bad.